Esa stopped whilst appealing

haboo wrote:

Hi all, on sat 10th november i received a letter from DWP to say that my contribution ESA would stop on the 7th November, nice of them. (I am in the work group but i have appeald to go into the support group, my appeal is later this month)
After phoning them and complaining about the timing of the letter' i asked what do i do now. I was told i could claim other benefits such as JSA. When I told them about my appeal (appeal started in October 2011). I was told that I would not get anything until i had, had my appeal.
Any advice would be appreciated as to what i do now. The stress is unbelievable.

I am assuming you have already checked to see whether you qualify for Income Related ESA?

If your ESA claim was new, rather than the result of your being transferred from another benefit, then you may be able to make a new claim for ESA(CB) if you have sufficient NI Contributions in the tax years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, you will need to wait 12 weeks from the termination of your ESA payments, before doing so.

If this is not the case then I think your options are extremel;y limited, I am not even sure that you could actually make a claim for JSA, as the eligibility criteria are the same as ESA.

If your appeal is successful then your payments will be back dated to the date of the Decision you are appealing against.

Gordon

haboo wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply, i was told that i could make a claim for income related esa, but they wont send out the form, ( cant do a claim over the phone) until after my appeal. So which ever way it goes, i am going to be £400 /£800 short until its sorted and it is great that they will back date it, but the longer it takes to sort out, the more financial hardship i will have.

I am not aware of any legislation that would prevent then from transferring you to Income Related ESA before your appeal is heard, so I am not convinced that what you have been told is correct.

The only potential issue would be if you were not part of a couple, in which case you should get advice before switching as it may not be to your advantage in the long term. My advice is the same if you are a couple, but there should not be an issue as the ESA(IR) rate will be higher than the ESA(CB) one.

Gordon